No sound out of MacBook speakers & red LED in Headphone jack

[Jacksmacbook]

I have the same problem except I also cant turn the light on my keys up.

Its ****ing annoying that this would happen a year after I was given this.

I think Apple puts these things in on purpose so you can buy the next version a year after this one.

 

[phantomEVO]

FIXED - Hardware Fix (requires soldering skillz)

Toothpick trick did not work for me, or anything similar. So, I took it apart to get a look at the logic bord. I reverse-engineered the connections I could access from the bottom of the PCB under the audio jack. While doing so, I found that you can jump two connections (one is sleeve ground and the other I believe is a connection from the switch inside the jack. After doing so, the headphone jack will not work as an audio output for either analog or optical, but the internal speakers will work fine. This is b/c the switch is basically bypassed, the macbook will never know whether there is a headphone plugged in to the jack or not. This fix is fine for me, especially since I had no other option b/c I'm out of warranty and I'm not spending $400 on a new logic board haha.

BTW, I'm a Ph.D. Computer Engineering student, I didn't just do this all willy-nilly out of the blue, haha. You do need a decent sodlering iron to do this and you must make sure you have a very small gauge wire (insulated). This fix can always be undone... if you need to for some reason. Below is an imgur link to a couple photos I took of the area and connections to jump.

NOTE: This is one a late 2008, a1278 MacBook unibody. The macbook pros may be slightly different, but you can figure it out with a connectivity meter and some fiddling maybe. They also could be exactly the same, I don't know.

http://rmn87.imgur.com/macbook_audio_jack_fix#SvfTV

hi rmn86, i've a slighty different macbook with the same problem.i've searched your pin on the schematics: you have connected tipdet with connj1 mic (i dont understand why). my problem is that i haven't "connj1mic" on my schematic...could you help me?

 

[teine]

a little air

This happens to me everytime I use headphones. This time I tried the q-tip, toothpick, end of a small paintbrush, etc to no avail. Instead what finally worked was just blowing some air into the opening, and the sound instantly worked! Must have just been dust.

thanks your idea worked for me. tried everything up here and nothing worked. jus blew a bit of air into it as you've mentioned and it worked. thank you so much